Cross‐cultural aspects of hypnotizability and imagination

Abstract

AbstractWe tested 133 native Malaysian students at the University of Malaysia with the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGHSS:A, Shor & Orne, 1962), the Creative Imagination Scale (CIS; Wilson & Barber (1978), the Tellegen Absorption Scale (TA; Tellegen, 1976), and the Betts Vividness of Mental Imagery Scale (QMI, Sheehan, 1967). These subjects were compared with a sample of 55 Malaysian volunteer college students enrolled at Ohio University. The average length of enrolment was 2.5 years and 459 college students (US residents) from Ohio University were also tested. The means of measures across all samples were comparable, with the exception that the Malaysian students scored lower on the CIS. However, we failed to secure significant correlations between hypnotizability and absorption and waking suggestion (CIS) in the Malaysian sample tested in Malaysia. In contrast, when Malaysian students resided in the United States, the correlations between hypnotizability and absorption and waking suggestion were all significant, as was the case with US residents. Our results imply that culture‐based expectancies play a role in mediating the relationship between hypnotizability and measures associated with hypnotizability in Western cultures. Copyright © 1996 British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis